Tuesday, October 09, 2007

PBS&J employee pleads guilty on multiple charges of conspiracy

Former PBS&J employee pleads guilty to federal charges

October 9, 2007

South Florida Business Journal
Copyright 2007

A former PBS&J Corp. employee has pleaded guilty to charges related to disguising and reimbursing contributions to candidates for federal and state office.

Richard A. Wickett pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to cause the filing of false statements with the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and the FBI said.

Wickett and another former PBS&J employee, H. Michael Dye were charged in March.

Authorities said Wickett and Dye had certain PBS&J employees claim false expenses for mileage in order to reimburse them for donations to candidates, and created a bank account for PBS&J with checks that omitted the corporate name and address in order to conceal the use of corporate funds. They said the men used corporate checks from a PBS&J subsidiary to reimburse campaign donations and employee bonuses as a means to fund campaign donations.

The engineering firm has moved its headquarters from Miami to Tampa.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 18.

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